Machining rails for laid railway or underground railway rails or streetcar rails is fundamentally known, as mentioned, for example, in patent EP 0952255 A1.
In general, the goals are defined in the case of all rail machining so that maximum removal of the flaws or cracks is to be achieved, depending on the rail state, simultaneously with the least possible material removal, and also with the best possible surface quality or dimensional accuracy with respect to the longitudinal and/or transverse profile. Grinding applications are encountered in this case more in the field of the lesser removal performance, and milling is encountered more in the field of the greater feed depths. Furthermore, planing applications are known for reprofiling rails.
The requirements with respect to the machining accuracy and surface quality are becoming greater and greater in particular under the aspect of low noise generation of the traveling train as a result of the rolling noise, which is to be minimized. These represent expanded and novel demands for the machining methods, particularly in regard to the rail tracking of the machining tools, to achieve the above-mentioned requirements.
Multiple proposed solutions for exact tracking of the machining tools are known in the prior art, which can be divided into two subgroups in principle. On the one hand, fixed or adjustable guide elements, which track or adjust the machining tools in a force-guided manner, are used, as mentioned, for example, in patents AT 366437 and DE 3015230 A1. On the other hand, the rail position is determined via suitable measuring means, for example, feeler elements or contactless measuring elements, and the machining tools are readjusted accordingly, as described in patents DD 283850 and EP 0552473 A1. To pass rail regions having rail gaps, for example, in the case of shunts in the region of the frog point and, in the case of intersections, in the region of the single and double frog points, multiple proposed solutions are also known in the prior art, for example, the automatically controlled raising of the machining tools by feelers located on the inside and outside in relation to the rail, as in patent DD 275837 A5, or changing to lateral copying on the opposing rail of the track strand or changing to a lateral copying unit on the outside region of the rail to be machined as mentioned in patent AT 510566 B1.
So as not to lose the precise position of the machining tools in relation to the respective rail, an assignment to the rail inner edge of the respective rail to be machined is sought. In particular so that no quality losses have to arise with respect to the precision of the machining result, it is important to refer to a rail strand, since the rail head width varies due to the production tolerances of the rail and this results in errors during a scan of inside and outside.
Furthermore, during a change of the two rails, the differing track width, which is also subject to tolerances, is to be considered as an error source. These deviations can be up to several millimeters in each case and are not acceptable.
The machining of the rail is to be performed aligned according to the defining inner edge or the affected track channel of the rail.
In addition, no automatic option is known from the prior art, which identifies the end of a rail interruption, and it is always the task of the operator to engage the machining and/or analysis tools again.
On the one hand, this requires a high level of attentiveness of the personnel, but also a relatively large non-machined region, since, for safety reasons, the machining can only be begun again after reliably leaving the rail interruption.
Accordingly, it is therefore desirable to overcome the described disadvantages of the existing systems and to solve the problems connected thereto in rail machining and/or rail analysis and to provide a method and a device which enable optimum rail machining and/or rail analysis-by way of regulated tracking of the respected device by means of controlled lateral copying unit or controlled lateral copying units, in particular by timely recognition of the rail gaps and reliable readjustment after completed passage of the rail gaps, by incorporating the check rails and wing rails or tongue rails of the respective track channel in the control.